Photo taken by Mark Weber from The Commercial Appeal. Coach Josh Pastner is in a familiar situation when it comes to hiring a new assistant coach.

By Courtney A. SmithBasketball season at the University of Memphis is wrapping up, which means that the coaches are moving onto prepping for the next season. Recruiting players is one thing, but there are other duties when it comes to being a head coach for a Division I basketball program.

Coach Josh Pastner of the Memphis Tigers is currently focused on the team’s structure for next season but will have to also focus on hiring a new assistant coach to his blemished coaching staff. Hiring a new assistant coach is an old tune for Pastner as he has had to replace assistants for the past three seasons.

Photo taken by Mark Weber from The Commercial Appeal. Assistant coach Jason Gardner (right) spent one season under coach Pastner at the University of Memphis.

After last season’s beat down by Michigan State (70-48) in the second round of the NCAA tournament, assistant coach Damon Stoudamire took an assistant head coaching job at his alma mater University of Arizona, where he played basketball from 1991-95.Stoudamire was hired in 2011 with former NBA player Luke Walton to replace Willis Wilson and Glynn Cyprien. Before Stoudamire left Memphis, Jimmy Williams resigned as the coach to pursue other opportunities.

Photo taken by Mark Weber from The Commercial Appeal. With Jason Gardner heading to IUPUI, the Tigers are left with only one assistant coach in Robert Kirby.

Athletes in college basketball are considered to be one-and-done, but coaches are following the same path.A prime example would be assistant coach Jason Gardner, who has decided to take the head coaching job at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Gardner was brought in alongside Robert Kirby prior to the beginning of the 2013-14 basketball season.Before Gardner came to Memphis, he was an assistant at Loyola University Chicago from 2011-13. He will replace Todd Howard, who went 26-70 in three seasons as the head coach.Before Gardner’s career as a coach began, he was a star basketball player at North Central High School in Indianapolis, Ind., in the late 1990s and in Arizona from 1999-2003.During a press conference, Pastner talked about the possibility of losing an assistant coach.“I got great assistant coaches. I love my guys. I never want to hold anybody back,” Pastner said. “They obviously want to be head coaches so I would always fight for them to be a head coach. So obviously if they have an opportunity to be a head coach somewhere, then obviously they will take the opportunity.”This will be the fourth straight season that Pastner will have to replace an assistant.